When deep water rigs experience equipment failure such as loss of power systems there is a need to quickly secure the well and drive the rig off the well. The current procedures when this occurs is to cut and drop the pipe in the hole using the shear rams and then use other blowout preventer components to secure the well before driving off. Many times there is expensive equipment on the pipe or in the well such that the act of dropping the pipe will cause an irretrievable loss of such equipment or at least severe damage if it is even possible to retrieve such equipment if the well is later reactivated.
Rather than dropping the pipe the present invention contemplates a method for capturing and anchoring the pipe as an initial step followed by sequential ram operation that later cuts the pipe and closes an annular preventer. In subsea applications when a rig is on location, this allows the pipe above the cut to be removed along with a marine riser so that the rig can be moved off. The pipe catcher can be of a variety of designs that can hold the pipe below the cut as long as needed. Optionally, at a later time if the well is to be reactivated, tests are performed to make sure that the well can be controlled before preventers and rams are reopened, the cut pipe reconnected before the catcher is released. A spear or overshot can grab the top of the pipe above the catcher before the catcher is released. The pipe can then be raised through the marine riser that has been replaced and repaired as needed. Those skilled in the art will better understand the method of the present invention from a review of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment and the associated drawings while recognizing that the full scope of the invention is to be measured by the appended claims.